Thank you!

Thanks to your advocacy efforts on our behalf, we're happy to report that the recently passed Omnibus Spending Bill includes a very small increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities! While our work is not over with regards to the upcoming 2018 budget to be passed in the fall, the Omnibus Spending Bill represents an endorsement of the important work that the humanities do for our communities. These funds will continue to support our work of providing free access to authoritative content about Virginia's history and culture.

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View of Saltville, Virginia

An engraving from the January 14, 1865, edition of Harper's Weekly shows the tiny but strategically important town of Saltville in southwestern Virginia. According to the Harper's account, there was "a bed of fossil salt" in the hills surrounding the town, and the salt manufactured from it was "of the purest quality, white and beautiful as the driven snow. Indeed, on seeing the men at work in the magazines, with pick and shovel, a novice would swear they were working in a snow-bank." Since salt was crucial in preserving food supplies for the Confederate army, the article added, "The works [in Saltville] have been deemed so important by the rebels that a Richmond paper lately declared the loss of Savannah an inferior consideration."